Desert Challenge Sets New Records

An incredible list of 116 competitors from 30 countries took part in the region’s most dramatic motor sport event. Set in the rough and unique terrain of the Rub Al Khali, Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey discovers that the race is definitely not for the faint hearted

With engines roaring, sand covering everything in sight, exhaust fumes bellowing into the blue sky, and people cheering and watching intently – even the uninitiated knew that they were part of something special. Starting the 16th UAE Desert Challenge, the super special stage, ridden out on a custom-built two kilometre track just in front of Dubai’s famous landmark, the Burj Al Arab, already saw one world-champion taking the crown — and all he had to do was get across the starting line. Russian team Sergey Shmakov and Konstantin Meshcheyakov in the Zil Buggy took home the world championship title for Russia, and completed the super special stage with the Russian flag flying from their custom made buggy.

A fantastic warm up for all competitors, the super special stage is a spectacle for racing enthusiasts, a chance to get close to all participants in the prestigious race and an opportunity to experience the different driving styles of quad-bikes, motorcycles, cars and the giant trucks. For most visitors, it was the only chance to see the star line-up until they made it back to the finish line in Dubai after five gruelling days of desert racing.

An international cross country rally and the first world championship motor sports event ever to be held in the Middle East, the UAE Desert Challenge was launched in 1991 by Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE, chairman of the organising committee, and 14-time winner of the event. The challenge is the penultimate round of the FIA (International Federation of Automobiles) Cross Country Rally World Cup and the FIM (International Federation of Motor sports) Cross Country Rallies World Championship, and as such attracts the crème de la crème of drivers and riders.

The race, held again under the gracious patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, was sponsored by Nakheel, the premier property developer behind Dubai’s most spectacular projects, such as The Palm, The World, Jumeirah Islands and Dubai Waterfront. The event was also sponsored by Nissan Middle East – with the Nissan Patrol being named the rally’s official car — FedEx, Castrol, Hertz UAE, ADNOC, Emarat, Immarsat, Gulf News and Oasis Water.

This year, the region’s most dramatic motor sport event saw the strongest line-up of competitors ever to assemble in this part of the world, all coming to compete for the World Cup and World Championship titles. The incredible list of 116 competitors from 30 nations was led by veterans Ari Vatanen from Finland and Carlos Saionz from Spain, 2nd seed Luc Alphand, Jean-Louis Schlesser and fellow Frenchman and last year’s winner Stephane Peterhansel wanting to regain his title. The bike line-up was dominated by fierce competitors David Casteau from France and Spain’s Marc Coma, last year’s World Champion. The event even attracted a Prime Minister, Rustam Minnikhanov of Tartarstan, who entered the event in the truck category, aiming to win himself a fourth title in five years, only missing out last year due to non-attendance because of a broken leg.

The race is not for the faint-hearted, with five days of desert racing, most of it taking place in the unique Rub Al Khali or Empty Quarter, along a 2,443 kilometre trail, full of rough terrain and spectacular sand dunes to be battled in the blazing heat. After the first day’s racing Ari Vatanen, who has embarked on a political as well as a racing career described his feelings: “During the last 50 kilometres I wished I was in my seat at the European parliament. My head got too hot and had gone into safety mode. It was like a piece of chewing gum.” Favourite Peterhansel too had a bad day: “We crashed in a dune and lost the front end of the car and, worse still, broke the steering. It is very difficult to drive in the desert without steering.”

Despite problems, or maybe because of them, the race is generally acknowledged as the warm-up for the Dakar rally, the biggest and most prestigious rally of them all. Testing new cars and yet unproven driving partnerships under the UAE conditions gives drivers and riders a chance to iron out potential problems and practice on the sand.

The race saw its fair share of problems, most notable the crash-landing of the helicopter carrying three members of the German media, with the pilot and co-pilot suffering minor injuries, but luckily no other casualties. The cars and bikes were battered and broken along the stages of the course, with Jean-Louis Schlesser suffering two punctures during the fifth stage, and two-times World rally Champion Carlos Sainz having had to give up his hopes early on in the third stage because of a broken drive shaft.

In the motor bike section, Casteau started off with a virtually unstoppable 24-point lead over Coma — although there were 25 points up for grabs at this race, meaning he basically only had to finish the race to win the world title, but a non-finish would give the crown to Coma. In the end it was Marc Coma who clinched the bikes title in the Desert Challenge, with David Casteau coming in second, but still taking the World Champion crown.

The host nation celebrated victory in the battle of the quads, with Atif Al Zarouni taking the title for the second time in three years, and Rustam Minnikhanov, Prime Minister of Tartasan, won the title for the trucks for the fourth time in five years.

The cars saw former world champion downhill skier Luc Alphand driving to his first victory in the UAE Desert Challenge, with a 15 minutes and 58 seconds advantage over Mitsubishi team-mate and favourite Stephane Peterhansel, who had five victories to his credit in the event, having succeeded both as a driver and a rider, capturing the bikes title twice before abandoning his bike in favour of the buggy and going on to win repeatedly.

But such is rally driving, mishaps and miscalculations can cost a day’s stage and making up lost time in the particularly challenging terrain of the Empty Quarter is difficult. The teams more used to the local conditions, Qatar’s Middle East Rally Champion Nasser Al Attiyah achieved fifth place overall, and Yayah Alhellei was the leading UAE finisher in ninth place, with team mates Ahmad Bin Suqat and Obaid bin Hathboor taking 11th and 13th places, respectively.

Veteran Ari Vatanen had joked at the pre-race press conference that a pact had been made to let Mitsubishi win the UAE Desert Challenge and they in turn would let his Volkswagen team win the Lisbon-Dakar rally. Statistics were in favour of the Mitsubishi team, which had conquered the event for the last four years in a row, and seven times out of 15, while only three other makes of car — Land Rover, the Schlesser Buggy and Citroen — having found victory in the race.

Turns out that Mitsubishi did win, and now the rally racing world has to wait and see if the Volkswagen team can pull off the victory at the Dakar rally in January.

Cars: Top Ten Results
1. Luc Alphand / Gilles Picard (F)/Mitsubishi Evolution
2. Stephane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret (F) Mitsubishi Evolution
3. Jean Louis Schlesser / Emmanuel Guigou (F)/Schlesser
4. Carlos Sousa / Andreas Schulz (P / D)/Volkswagen
5. Nasser Al Attiyah / Alain Guehennec QA / F X-raid GmbH BMW X3
6. Jutta Kleinschmidt / Tina Thorner (D / S)/BMW
7. Hiroshi Masuoka / Pascal Maimon (J / F)/Mitsubishi Evolution
8. Jose Luis Monterde / Jean-Marie Lurquin (E / B)/BMW
9. Yahya Alhelei / Khalid Alkendi (UAE)/Chevrolet
10. Carlos Sainz / Michel Perin (E / F)/Volkswagen

Bikes: Top Ten Results
1. Marc Coma (E) / KTM 660 LC4
2. Cyril Despres (F) / KTM 660 LC4 M3
3. Jordi Viladoms (E) / KTM 660 LC4M3
4. David Casteu (F) / KTM 660 LC4
5. Christopher Blais (USA) / KTM Red Bull KTM 660 LC4 M3
6. Pal Anders Ullevalsetter (N) / KTM 660 Rally
7. Frans Verhoeven (NL) / KTM Gauloises KTM 660 LC4 M3
8. Sean Linton (GB) / Gecko Motorcycles Honda 450 CRF
9. Janis Vinters (LV) / KTM 660
10. Oscar Polli (I) / KTM 450 Rally